£250 a week on shipping. Is this nuts?

[Twobigsapphires]

The jury seems to be out amongst people I’ve spoken to (not many, basically my family). We are essentially now spending around £250 a week on the food shop (one main shop a week and one top up). Household consists of my and Dh, ds20, dd18 and ds16. Often ds1 gf will stay for dinner on a Sunday and one or two nights in the week. We have 2 dogs but Dh pays for their food separately.

shop covers park lunches for Dh and I plus ds1 and ds2. Dd I give an allowance too and she pays for lunch out of that. Also covers a couple of bottles a wine a week and household cleaning products and most essential toiletries (shower gel etc).

Dh thinks this is excessive, I think at £50 pp per week this is what it is. My dm said I should be aiming for £150 per week! Dsis says she spends around £150 per week on her food shop for her, Dh and two small dc (doesn’t include dinner money and her Dh buys lunch out each day).

what does the mums net verdict think?

Just realised pet food isn’t included in mine, that’s £42 every 3.5 weeks.

It provides us with four meals a week plus leftovers for my lunch. There’s certain meals as well where i know I can add more pasta and make it last two meals etc.

We don’t buy cheese. We buy two oat milks a week, sainsburys shreddies at 90p for a box.

Lunch I just have toast most of the time or tinned soups. There’s a lovely sainsburys soup for 67p we get often.

For treats and sweet things we generally get yellow sticker bakery items as they’re best value.

Cleaning products is included in that £30. It’s not like you have to buy cleaning products that regularly anyway. And I get own brand cleaners which are usually about a quid.

Washing powder we do Smol which is £5.40 a month.

If you can afford it, then just carry on OP.

If you need to reduce the cost, maybe move to a budget supermarket?

£100 in Aldi ‘for the weekend’ isn’t a top-up shop - it’s a big shop!

Shower cleaner...use white vinegar and water solution...ima. Spray bottle.

Anti bac spray, but concentrated disinfectant, zoflora if you must, or any basics brown disinfectant for £1 and water it down in a spray bottle, will last months.

Use diluted washing up liquid as a general surface cleaner... Doubles up as an antibac spray too if it's is an antibac one.

You'll spend maybe £20 a year...

I often spend £80 to £120 each shop and that’s just for me. I cannot physically go to the shops so get deliveries from Tescos every ten days, ie three a month. I do not buy anything else during the week although I do go out for meals quite often. I reckon my average monthly shop is £300 a month ( includes food, alcohol, cleaning materials, household items and stationary) which averages out at £75 a week.

It seems a lot for one person but apart from some meals out, I don’t spend anything else on a regular basis - petrol less than once a month, clothes online every season, presents for people etc.

Not being able to walk around the shops saves me a lot of money, no impulse buying!

I totally see how this is doable, and I’m sure when it’s juts Dh and I we will hardly spend much at all. But 3 teens eat more than a slice of toast for breakfast and soup for lunch. They do eat cheese, and cereal bars, at least 2 pieces of fruit a day etc.

Get cheaper toiletries. Replace shower gel with bars of soap. Easy money saved there.
Get the brand down for toothpaste...

Stop with the cereal bars, absolute waste of money.

I don't think it's unreasonable. There are things you could cut out if you were struggling to pay for it but you're not.

i would say cereal bars cost me around £1.50 a week. Hardly a huge saving. Teenagers snack, what else should they snack on? If it’s not cereal bars it will be something else. They already eat fruit, ds1 will grab a yoghurt or almonds as a snack which is even more expensive. Dd will snack on cheese and crackers, fruit, biscuits.

I agree that snacks like cereal bars are just money down the drain for zero nutrients and they’re not filling. I once watched my teen nephew eat three in a row 😐 and they don’t even feel like a treat. That’s the stuff that adds up. I can’t see how you’re spending £250 a week if you’re having some meals like jacket potatoes. But I bet it’s the snacks. Fruit is fine.

Cross post - so where does most of the spend go? How much are you spending on wine?

@Twobigsapphires I stopped having snack stuff in when our son was a teen because fast as I bought it- he ate it. I kept bread in , modest amount of cheese , ham, crackers and malt loaf plus grapes and bananas and oranges. When they were gone, that was it and he had to make toast and butter/jam/peanut butter etc

I found the more stuff you had, the more they took the piss

Ours is similar, family of 5. Sometimes it's nearer the £300. DH had this conversation recently with his contractors and we are not in the minority. When I speak to friends and school mums they are all spending similar amounts.

You're not comparing like with like if you're asking people about their food bills but you're including non-essentials like sun cream and hair gel as part of your grocery shop.
And 'average' is meaningless. You've only got to look at a MN 'what's for dinner' thread to see that many families live off beige freezer food and processed snacks; your diet sounds much more appetising, so of course it will cost more. Of course you could bring your bill down; but would you want to? Or rather, as your husband is the one complaining, does he fancy chicken nuggets and beans?

£50 pp is what I spend OP, I think it’s fine. It’s increased with food inflation, it used to be £45.

I don’t eat much meat although others in the house do. I don’t buy organic meat. We eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, some gluten free. I don’t like shit food so basically no way can I eat cheap sausages from Aldi.

Cereal bars are fine.

£120-ish a week here. 3 adults and one ten year old. All meals apart from school dinners eaten at home. Don't drink. Cleaning supplies are on amazon subscribe and save for max discounts. Use new customer codes as often as possible.

I think that sounds OK. It depends if you can afford it. I usually have 2 Ocado orders a week and that usually comes to about £230. This includes cleaning products and wine and food for the birds feeders. It is just my husband and me but we have 2 grandchildren twice a week. I like to give the grandchildren organic food. I know I could cut down if I wanted to. We have Charlie Bighams curries twice a week. On the plus side, I hardly ever have a take away. I just don’t see the point of greasy, not hot food.

Same here… did a shop last night that cost us $301 … didn’t even get wine, snacks or cheese!!!!

Oh my just worked mine out it's around £700 a month for 2 adults and 2 toddlers!

That sounds normal to me. We spend £180-200pw for family of 5( 3 adults, 5yo and 1yo), not including nappies or some toiletries. No pets. Don't buy alcohol, or many other drinks at all. But we buy a lot of fruit and quite a lot of snack food for packed lunches, eat meat every day (not organic) and buy a lot of convenience food (not ready meals but ready to cook), and a fair bit from premium ranges because we like the taste, and I don't always have time to cook from scratch. I could definitely spend less but we don't have any real need to, and everything is getting eaten and not wasted.

Yep sounds normal to me too - we'd spend the same and often a bit more, with a family of 5. Two adults and 3 active teen/pre-teens. They really do eat a lot.

We do buy some cereal bars etc for convenience, but I also bake muffins/flapjack etc. Baking has got much more expensive - processed snacks are often much cheaper than decent quality baking ingredients (looking at you, butter!!)

I do pack lunches for the kids, and so keeping fresh salad / fruit / cheese etc in for that, as well as for snacking, all adds up.

I'm also guilty of buying the nice icecream more often than not. We rarely buy alcohol which would be a good saving, but I spend the equivalent on desserts instead.

I spend £235 a month. It's just me, so we're working out about the same per person. I'm quite good at eating economically, but it's all real food. Things like fish fingers, chicken nuggets and potted sauces never cross my doorstep.

Now I think about it, I'm too old to worry about UHPFs any more, so maybe I should give some of the cheap crap a try 😂